Abstract
This study reports the accounts of 12 Afghan men in a medium-sized cityacculturating to the United States. The interviews took place in person over two weeks in 2024. Four key informants were interviewed to develop context and inform the interview questions. Sensitivities were encountered in the sampling process: the research design called for an equal number of men and women, but no women consented to participate; also, the design called for focus groups of three, but interviews also took place singly or in pairs.
Past research from Berry (1997) and Ager and Strang (2008) informed a deductive analysis of the data, while an inductive analysis developed four themes and eleven subthemes. The first theme was the instability of three of four indicators of integration: job instability, housing immobility, and risks in healthcare and medical insurance. The second theme was the impediments to integration from insufficient literacy in the English language, American culture, and financial and technical systems. The third theme was the moderating force of social links with key leaders within the immigrant community and host society. The fourth theme was the sense of personal agency experienced by Afghan men in facing difficulties and seizing opportunities in their acculturation experience. The findings demonstrate the opportunity that long-term relationships and connections to leaders in the host and immigrant communities provide to assist Afghan immigrants in integrating into the host society.
Keywords: immigrants, acculturation, integration, assimilation, Afghan, domains of integration, jobs, housing, healthcare, literacy, personal agency